Navan Central railway station

Railways around Navan
Legend
to Drogheda to Clonsilla Navan Navan Central Navan Junction Tara Mine Navan North to Oldcastle to Kingscourt

Navan Central is a proposed railway station intended to serve the town of Navan, the county town of County Meath, Ireland.

The station is planned to be built as part of the second phase of reinstatement of the Clonsilla-Navan line but at present been deferred due to the reduction in the Exchequer capital investment programme.^[1] The proposed route consists of 34 km of railway line with stations located at Dunshaughlin, Kilmessan, Navan town centre station) and a further station on the northern edge of Navan. The service will restore passenger railway services to Navan for the first time since the closure of the original Navan station in 1958.

History

Navan originally formed a significant junction on the rail network in Ireland - at Navan Junction the GNR(I) line between Drogheda and Oldcastle, built in the 1850s, connected with the MGWR line between Clonsilla and Kingscourt.^[2] The run down of passenger services in the late 1940s and early 1950s saw the MGWR connection lost in 1947, while Navan station was closed to passengers entirely in 1958,^[3] with passenger services on Clonsilla route ending in 1963.

Although no passenger trains service Navan, the route to Drogheda is still used by freight trains from the Tara mines. There have been calls for this route to be upgraded so that passenger trains could utilise this as a commuter route into Dublin.^[4]

Plan

Navan has seen an expansion of its population over the last decade, with nearly 25,000 counted in the Navan urban area in 2006.^[5] Under the Irish government's Transport 21 plan, proposals were put in place that would see the reinstatement of passenger services to Navan along the old MGWR route from Clonsilla. This plan would be implemented in two phases, with the extension to Navan itself part of phase two, intended to open in 2015. Navan Central is planned as the main station for the town, and will be located near Páirc Tailteann.^[6] However, the railway line will continue northwards, with a park and ride station intended to serve the areas to the north of the town.

References

1. Irish Rail Navan Railway Line - General Information
2. Navan Junction - eiretrains.com
3. "Navan station/Navan Junction station" (PDF). Railscot - Irish Railways. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
4. Navan - Drogheda - Dublin, Navan Already Has a Rail Line to Dublin - Rail Users Ireland
5. "Census 2006 – Volume 1 – Population Classified by Area" (PDF). Central Statistics Office Census 2006 Reports. Central Statistics Office Ireland. April 2007. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
6. Navan Central option - Iarnród Éireann